Survivor only learns of Italian avalanche after rescue

A survivor of an Italian avalanche said she only learned she had been buried by tons of snow after she was rescued, thinking until then that she had been trapped by one of the many earthquakes that have rattled central Italy in recent months.

Giorgia Galassi said she never imagined that an avalanche could have been responsible for the devastation around her in the Hotel Rigopiano.

In an interview with the Associated Press, she said: “We didn’t know it until the firefighters told us.

“We thought the whole time that it was a very strong earthquake.”

Ms Galassi and her boyfriend Vincenzo Forti were two of the nine people pulled out alive from the January 18 avalanche. At least 25 others died and four remain missing.

Rescue vehicles near the Hotel Rigopiano

Ms Galassi and Mr Forti described their ordeal from her parents’ living room in Giulianova, a town on the Adriatic coast, saying they were scared but knew they would be okay because they had snow to fend off their thirst.

“We took it and we put it in our mouths. At times, there was even glass and mud (in it). But it was survival,” she said.

Ms Galassi said they believe they first heard rescuers at around 11am local time on Friday – nearly two days after the avalanche – as they spoke to another one of the hotel guests who was buried along with her son nearby.

“And when I heard she was speaking with someone, I yelled ‘Who are you speaking to?’ She said ‘I am speaking with Mauro, who is a rescuer. They came to save us.’ They said to stay calm, that they would pull us out.”

Ms Galassi said that is when “we started to yell and to knock to make ourselves heard. And after a while he came also to talk to us”.